In the video below I take you through a couple of common squatting myths and help you to make some slight functional tweaks that will allow you to squat deeper, safer and stronger.

I hope you enjoy the video. Please let me know how you get on in the comments section below.

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So this is something that seems to be a bit of a hot topic in the weight loss and nutrition industry right now. Its in the early stages of research but the results look pretty promising so far.
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So a an industry, we have known that your gut bacteria profile can play an important role in the health of your digestive system but up until now, we weren’t really sure that it had any significant effect on weight loss.

We are still not quite sure about the mechanisms that makes a poor bacteria profile inhibit weight loss but we do know that improving the balance of good bacteria in your gut can help you kick start the process and speed a few things up in your weight loss process.

From what we know so far the specific strains of bacteria that helps you boost your weight loss potential are “LACTOBACILLUS” and “BIFIDOBACTERIUM”. These help you top up your good bacteria, that aid the digestive process, allowing you to absorb nutrients better from your small intestine.

So how do we get this into our diets to help speed up weight loss and improve our health?
Well, there are specific foods that are rich in these strains of bacteria and are also rich in other minerals that will help you achieve good overall health.

Top 5 Foods To Improve Gut Health

1. Organic Natural Greek Yoghurt

A nice summer breakfast could be
 
2 spoons of natural Greek yoghurt
2 heaped tbs of raw porridge oats
Handful of mixed berries
Handful of mixed nuts
 
Mix em all up in a bowl and enjoy.
 
You could also add a large tbs to your morning protein smoothie too.
 
2. High Quality Dark Chocolate 

Chocolate itself doesn’t contain probiotics, but it was found to be a very effective carrier for probiotics. Chocolate helps them survive the extreme pHs of the digestive tract to make it to the colon. Because of this protective ability probiotics can be added to high-quality dark chocolate.
 
3. Micro Algae
 
Supplementing with wheat grass and spirulina would be a good way to improve gut health as it will naturally nourish the good bacteria already in your gut, helping them grow and multiply
 
4. Sauerkraut
 
Made from fermented cabbage. It is naturally high in live bacteria cultures as well as being high in vitamins A,B,C and K
 
5. Miso Soup
 
Makes a great little snack, along with some chicken to help with the protein intake. Has great traditional healing properties and has been proven to be rich in a huge variety of nutrients.

Add these into your current nutrition regime to help boost healthy live bacteria that will certainly help you improve your digestive health and could go a long way towards helping you to finally get rid of that unwanted body fat.

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Getting runners and endurance athletes to understand that they need to be doing strength training in order to run or perform their sport more efficiently and avoid injury is an ongoing personal crusade of mine. I am determined to convince the runners, triathletes and cycling fanatics of Yorkshire that strength training will not only stop them getting injured on a regular basis but also make them more energy efficient in their chosen sport and help them get faster.

When I talk about this with clients, I get the same old things popping up.

“I don’t want to get bulky as it will make me heavy and slow”

“If I spend time strength training I will have to give up a run or a cycling session which will stop me progressing”

“It’s just running, I don’t need to be strong to run”

So, I deal a lot with recreational running injuries and the simple fact of the matter is this…

“About 90% of all injuries I see are a direct result of the athlete not being strong enough to to control ground reaction forces over a significant period”.

Therefore, almost all of my running based rehab is more like low level strength conditioning, as opposed to soft tissue work and flexibility training.

Let’s Look At The Facts

1. Running is a relatively dangerous sport

50% of all recreational runners WILL pick up at least one injury on an annual basis. Meaning that if you take up running as a sport or hobby you basically have a 1 in 2 chance  of getting injured at least once per year (Van Gent et al 2007).
 
2. What Causes of Running Injury?

The study by Van Gent above sights the main cause of running injury as overuse. Basically, running too often and covering too many miles. This is backed up by a study by Messier et al in 2008 who went on to add that accumulation of forces greater than the stress capabilities of muscle and joint structures also play a part. So basically every time your foot hits the ground, it does so with 1.5 to 3 times your body weight. Over the period of a run or race your muscles and joints are having to deal with literally tonnes of force. Other factors such as poor hip biomechanics, specifically poor hamstring flexibility and load tolerance were also found to be significant.

In a 2010 study Powers found that abnormal hip mechanics and in particular poor glute and hip abduction strength were an important indicator in knee injury among runners and as result a lot of the strengthening work done for runners should focus on improving the functional strength of the muscles in this area. (glute med and max, TFL, lateral hamstring).
 
3. Do training shoes make much difference?

There are some pretty impressive claims made by shoe manufacturers in relation to the performance and injury outcome you can expect by wearing their shoes. When we look at proper, peer reviewed studies (ones that have no interest in lying to you to sell trainers), we find that running shoe prescription has little or no benefit on injury risk (Knapik et al 2014, Richards, Magin and Callister, 2007). These are just 2 highlighted studies, there are hundreds more saying the exact same thing.
 
4. What are the benefits of strength training?

Well in short, the benefits of strength training are:

• Better overall endurance
• Better running efficiency
• Faster run times
• Reduced risk of injury due to improvements in running mechanics.

Please don’t just take my word for it however, all of the following studies have found these benefits when using a variety of strength training protocols to investigate their effects on running performance (Ronnestad and Mujika, 2013; Sato et al, 2009; Storen et al, 2008; Ronald et al, 1997; Taipale et al, 2013; Saunders et al, 2006)

5. What type of training is best?

Well the studies quoted above identified a variety of different training options. They looked at high rep and low weight, high intensity training (heavy weight and low reps) and power based training (plyometrics including hoping, and jumping etc). Believe it or not, it was the heavy stuff that came out on top, with power based training coming a close second.

So from this we can pretty much determine that to get the most benefit from any strength training protocol, we should be looking at combining high weight and low rep strength training with power based training to strengthen the hips and legs (with an emphasis on the glutes and hamstrings) and the core muscles such as the abs, obliques and lower back.

WARNING! Don’t start your strength training program by jumping straight into plyometrics. Start by adding simple strength exercises like squatting, lunging, split squats and deadlifts into your routine. Nail the technique of these with just your body weight then start to add additional weight. Only when you can exhibit confident control of these movements with some extra weight should you then progress to power and plyometric activities.

Starting a strength training program in this way will help prevent you from picking up injury performing the training that is supposed to prevent you from picking up injuries in the first place.
 
6. Will strength training make me bulky?

In short, NO. the type and volume of strength training, combined with your running endurance training will not make you bulky. It takes a lot of time and dedication to put on weight through muscle mass. As a runner or endurance athlete you will simply not be doing it in the volume required or consuming the volume of protein required to build muscle at a rate that will hamper your running performance.

In fact, the study by Ronald et al (1997) found that female distance runners who took part in the study were able to significantly improve their running efficiency and performance by increasing their overall body strength. During which time, there was no change to their overall body composition as a result of the resistance training.

In Conclusion

So after reading all of this, I am now hoping that you might be convinced to start a strength training program to give you more longevity, avoid the disappointment of injury and run a bit faster and get more PB’s.

In fact, I am sure that staring a good running strength program will revolutionise the way you run and think about training. It will make you feel stronger, more toned, more athletic and more excited about what is happening with your running training because you are getting faster all of the time.

If you would like to start a strength and conditioning program that is designed specifically to enhance running performance then you need to get on board with my Faster Running Boot Camp.This is a monthly program designed specifically for runners and is guaranteed to make you:

• Stronger
• More powerful
• More flexible
• More efficient

Not only will you be working on specific running conditioning drills, you will also be shown how to improve your running gait so you can transfer your newfound strength into a faster and more efficient running style.

Hit the button below to apply for a space on the program